Friday 30th

NME announces that the “Oh Boy!” series is such a success that it has been extended yet again. Due to end in March 1959 it will now extend to 30th May. The approval to continue the series was no doubt helped by the clinching of the deal to sell some of the shows to the United States, which was nearing completion at this time:

"Oh Boy!" has been extended again! ABC-TV told producer Jack Good this week it will now continue weekly until May 30. He then plans a holiday and presumes the show will return in the autumn. By the time the series ends, Good predicts that it will have produced at least one other star. "Marty Wilde, Cliff Richard and someone else will form the spearhead of "Oh Boy!", Jack told the NME. "I think the someone may be Bill Forbes. He has appeared in the programme four or five times and is definitely catching on."

Forbes appears on February 14 and 28 and then at least five more times before the final programme on May 30. Either he, Cliff, or Marty is expected to be in each programme until the end. Producer Good expects all the regulars to continue during the extension. Neville Taylor and The Cutters miss the February 7 and 14 programmes, however. There will also be occasional guest appearances by established stars and Jack Good still hopes to book suitable visiting American artists.

The stage presentation of "Oh Boy!" started with an uncolourful first-night at Hammersmith Commodore on Sunday. Because of licensing regulations, artists were stopped from wearing their normal stage costumes. Lord Rockingham's XI, Britain's most unconventional band, appeared in very conventional dinner-jackets instead of its pink television uniforms. The Vernons Girls' dance routines had to be drastically curtailed.

MIDAS TOUCH

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